Slow Smoke/Mrs. Down-Stars
MRS. DOWN-STARS
A Widow and Her Three Daughters:
Seraphine,
Josephine,
Josette.
O winter wind, move gently in this wood;
Here lives a gaunt black birch, so old, so worn,
So haggard with the snows of sixty winters
That nothing remains of her save tattered dreams,
And, sheltered by her withered arms, the fruit
Of an ancient ardor long since gone to dust:
Three saplings, shimmering-clean and cherry-red,
That loop the forest floor with supple limbs.
Here lives a gaunt black birch, so old, so worn,
So haggard with the snows of sixty winters
That nothing remains of her save tattered dreams,
And, sheltered by her withered arms, the fruit
Of an ancient ardor long since gone to dust:
Three saplings, shimmering-clean and cherry-red,
That loop the forest floor with supple limbs.
O winter storm, though here are three young dancers
Eager to make a high wild song of winds,
To leap upon the dust of yesterday,
There is a broken dreamer in this wood
Who knows no song save mournful requiem,
No step for dancing on a snow-drift save
Macaber click of hollow yellow bones
And shuffle of ghostly feet. O January,
Shake out no moan from her, and be no urge
To her unwilling feet; oh, let her sink
Gently to earth in her good time and season,
To dreams, to dreamlessness; and cover her,
Cover her softly with your drift of snow,
As tenderly as this gaunt birch let fall
Her leaves and bedded down her saplings three
Against the coming of a cold, cold winter.
Eager to make a high wild song of winds,
To leap upon the dust of yesterday,
There is a broken dreamer in this wood
Who knows no song save mournful requiem,
No step for dancing on a snow-drift save
Macaber click of hollow yellow bones
And shuffle of ghostly feet. O January,
Shake out no moan from her, and be no urge
To her unwilling feet; oh, let her sink
Gently to earth in her good time and season,
To dreams, to dreamlessness; and cover her,
Cover her softly with your drift of snow,
As tenderly as this gaunt birch let fall
Her leaves and bedded down her saplings three
Against the coming of a cold, cold winter.